Posted on 03/13/2005 5:03:47 PM PST by srm913
Wouldn't it be great if with one button you could zip obnoxious lips. Well, you can. It's called a cell phone jammer.
"I can't turn it on, for legal reasons, but if I did, mobile phones in this room would die within seconds," says Michael Menage of Global Gadget UK.
Every cell phone within 200 feet flatlines, including important emergency calls, which is why jammers are illegal to have.
But, as CBS News Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, when CBS went undercover, posing as nightclub owners into a New York City spy shop, it became apparent that they're pretty easy to buy.
When we asked if one could be obtained within 24 hours, we were told, "Yeah, just tell me when you want it, and I'll get it for you."
Moments later, a jammer was purchased out of the back room for $2,000.
For a lot less, you can order them online from companies overseas. Menage says more than 2,000 of the jammers he sells every year are shipped to the United States.
"I would say most of our customers are just people who are cheesed-off by people using mobile telephones indiscreetly," says Menage. "Then there is the business sector."
Restaurants, casinos, even churches are buying jammers. But the FCC says, it amounts to stealing, saying cell phone users pay good money to access the airwaves.
"The penalties are huge if you get caught," says Rob Bernstein of Sync Magazine. "Just having a cell phone jammer can cost you $11,000 and a year in prison."
But the thing is, no one has been caught. Most people don't even know they've been jammed.
So the next time your call drops out, think twice. Someone might have been sick of your lip and just made you "shut the cell up."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
In Iraq, apparently cell phones are one of the methods of choice for detonating roadside bombs. I have wondered why they don't develop a device to provide a scrambled "bubble" around vehicles as they go from point to point. Probably would interfere with their own communications somehow.
I don't have a cell phone.
I don't have cable tv.
I do have DSL...:)
There is a debate in the motorcycle community if jammers on bikes would cause more harm than good. The concept of a bunch of heads down cagers swearing at their phones my be more hazardous to riders than their mindless chatter on them while driving.
Yes I have an attitude about this, but then again, I've been hit be a driver using one. Adding insult to injury was the question by the adjuster if I was on mine too (while riding).
Where was that "Right To Be Free From Annoyance" listed in the Constitution again? It was probably next to the "Right To Be Free From Offence" which allows Crosses to be torn off of War Memorials because some self-righteous atheist was offended by seeing it as he drove down the highway.
But that's different! That's our cultural heritage! Yeah? So is a free market in which people can buy a product and a service without some uninvited third party shutting it down surreptitiously because he doesn't like hearing just half of a conversation. Plus, he's probably too girly to ask the person to keep it down so he wants a gadget to do his dirty work so he can slink out like a child. He also shuts off the courteous people, but it doesn't matter; it's all about having it his way.
I guess he wouldn't mind if his neighbor were somehow able to "jam" his satellite TV reception because the latter got annoyed hearing him cheer while watching football.
That's the business owner's issue to handle, not the customers'. I'd be pretty pissed if I had a customer visiting my establishment and he jammed my phone in addition to everyone else's.
If the owner wants to jam in his own property, he should notify customers with a sign at the entrance that jamming is in progress so they'll at least know what's happening and may choose to frequent the business or not. He should also make sure that his device isn't interfering with neighboring businesses, but I'm sure he's not all that concerned so long as there aren't any loud people talking on the phone is his place. I'd wager people who are self-centered enough to jam others' service are probably not too concerned with who else is affected.
The business owner's in question can control their environment by asking cell phone users to limit or eliminate their conversations.
Let's grow up and act like adults.
We have been through all this on another thread. These things are ILLEGAL. Nobody has the right to interrupt someone else's phone call PERIOD. It's called minding your own business.
You have no right to interfere with someone else's telephone call. PERIOD.
Amen!
Testify!
"I have wondered why they don't develop a device to provide a scrambled "bubble" around vehicles as they go from point to point"
They have these devices in Iraq and they are using them exactly as you describe.
Cool. Glad to hear that!
For your information...:)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1359684/posts
(I enjoyed this thread almost as much as the "Big" Dick Cheney custard eating thread)
This would not affect anything outside the establishment. It would silence all radio devices, including cell phones, inside.
"Let's grow up and act like adults."
That's the problem: Cell phone users have shown they refuse to.
Good luck with the accident case. Hope the egocentric driver got a citation.
Driving is a priviledge, not a right. Even rights are meaningless without the responsibilities that go along with them. Driving while distracted by a cell phone is about as irresponsible as having a hunter as loaded as his or her 12 gauge.
Hear, hear.
I hate the cell phone cameras. The idea struck me as Orwellian from the start. Plus, there is no way I am going to cough up ten bucks a month for sending grainy, postage-stamp size pictures over the airwaves.
My ex-girlfriend thought they would be good for vigilantes and such and provide plenty of opportunities for Rodney King-style filmmaking, but I don't see the merit.
I do have a right to my own privacy that gets grossly invaded when folks decide to have their loud personal conversations in my space. It may be hard for you to believe, but not all folks are considerate of other people when they talk on their cell phones. I'll continue to be all for jammers in selected places(churches, funerals, restauants, etc.)
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